


Wildest Dreams

by airam06



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 10:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7432454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airam06/pseuds/airam06
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world is safe, the Winchesters are starting over, and Castiel makes a difficult choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wildest Dreams

Cas stayed with the Winchesters after they saved the world the final time, after everything was calm and they could just be. Chuck had been kind but firm in his final decision: return to Heaven to keep it in order, or stay out for good with diminishing grace. It hadn’t been a hard decision. He knew where he belonged. He even took on a job as an orderly at the local nursing home. Angelic tendencies tended to stick, after all.

Sam was happy; he delved back into education and spoke of returning to school, maybe even to become a teacher himself. He spent hours out of the bunker simply enjoying the safety of it all. The normalcy.

Dean was a different story. Cas tried to help him adjust to his new life, but no amount of long drives in his Baby or carefully homecooked meals could bring him back to himself. Rather, whenever Cas did something to try and cheer Dean up, the man seemed to retreat even further back into himself. Cas slowly began to understand; he reminded Dean of the life he had always known. Cas could try his best to make this new life appealing to Dean, but he would always be a painful reminder of the first three decades of Dean’s life.

He made his move late one evening. Sam and Dean had fallen asleep watching some game, side by side as though even in this new safe world, they didn’t dare get too far from one another. Cas crept up to them and placed a hand on each of their foreheads. Dean’s eyes fluttered open.

“Cas? What are y-”

“I love you,” Cas said softly. “But I can’t hurt you anymore.”

With that he pulsed the last tendrils of his grace through the Winchesters, knocking Dean back into a deep sleep and erasing every memory of hunting the two ever had. He knit a new life story together for them both, full of happiness and as little sadness as he could. With his fully human hands now shaking, he pulled back and turned away to grab his limited belongings, though he couldn’t help one last long look at Dean before taking a deep breath and walking out the door.

_Thirty Years Later_

“Castiel, we’ve got a new patient, and you need to go get him settled in,” a harried nurse plunked a clipboard down in front of Cas and massaged her temples.

“Why me?” Cas frowned.

He had been at Lawrence Retirement Home for decades now. With his wrinkled skin and thick gray hair, Cas looked more like a patient than a nurse, but whether is was related to his previous angelic state or just luck, Cas seemed to be in perfect health.

“He’s the meanest old man I’ve ever met. If you don’t take this one, I may go to jail for murder.”

Cas sighed, but nodded and picked up the clipboard. He padded down C-wing to the newest patient’s room and knocked on the door.before stepping in. A man sat in one of the stiff chairs, his back to the door as he stared out into the spring afternoon.

“I told you, I don’t need any damn help! Been gettin’ along just fine.”

Cas froze in place. That voice...it couldn’t be. He glanced down at the paperwork with his heart thudding. Printed neatly across the top was the patient name.

_Dean Winchester_

“What are you doing here?” the question was ripped from his throat before Cas could stop it.

Dean stilled, thrown for a moment by the obvious change in nurses, but he waved a hand without even turning around.

“Why is everyone here, man? I’m old as hell, tired of mooching off my brother and his wife whenever I try and settle down. I ain’t gonna be a burden.”

“You...you didn’t live a normal life,” Cas stated numbly, and he moved closer into the room.

“Are you my therapist?” Dean scoffed, but his voice softened. “It just never felt right. My whole life it’s like I’ve been missing something. Like I forgot something important. So I just kept looking for it.”

Cas swallowed. No, _no_ , this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. He must not have cleared Dean’s mind well enough all those years ago. Instead of settling down into the life he deserved, Dean had been unconsciously living the life of a hunter with nothing to hunt. _Alone_. Cas had nearly reached Dean’s chair, and he wanted to hug him, apologize for messing up Dean’s life when he wasn’t even in it.

“What were you looking for?” Cas asked quietly, and Dean finally turned in his chair to look at him.

Dean’s eyes, still brilliantly green, flicked upward to Cas’s, and he gave a short draw of breath as the walls Cas had carefully built in his mind began to crumble.

“You.”


End file.
